The Adam Grant Interview

Adam Grant is one of the most well known organizational psychologists. Imagine doing a PhD  in three years and then becoming the highest-rated and tenured professor at Wharton at thirty one.

Being Adam Grant ...

He writes more than a hundred recommendation letters for his students, nominates colleagues for awards, responds to more than 200 emails every day, teaches at Wharton, consults with the most admired companies, publishes in top tier journals more often than any professor, has written a fabulous book called Give and Take, has more than 16 thousand followers on Twitter. He describes himself on Twitter @AdamMGrant as “dad, former springboard diver and magician, anagram aficionado, aspiring superhero, but only a supertaster”.He says being helpful and productive is the key to his success. Helping others is the motivator to being productive and creative. His book Give and Take divides people into Givers (who help others), Takers (the selfish approach) and Matchers (who will do enough to match the giver). I loved the book and highly recommend it.https://youtu.be/-HLQGbtc1K4

“The greatest untapped source of motivation, is a sense of service to others; focusing on the contribution of our work to other people’s lives has the potential to make us more productive than thinking about helping ourselves.”

Meet Adam Grant (PhD, University of Michigan; BA, Harvard University)who talks about Give and Take using some magic trickshttp://youtu.be/1baNQmnRCVw

Abhijit: Usually people “network” with someone who can be useful to them. What are the common errors in the way people approach networking? 

Adam Grant: Many people approach networking with a taker mindset: they focus on what they can get. Although this laser-focus on personal gain can have short-term advantages, eventually, it ends up sacrificing relationships and reputations.  Others have a matcher mindset, focusing on trading favors evenly.  Matchers play fair and square, but tend to make two mistakes.  One misstep is creating a transactional impression.  People walking away thinking, “You didn’t actually care about me; you just helped me so you could get something back.”  The other stumbling block is networking too narrowly, only engaging with the people they think can help them.  We can’t always predict who can help us, so matchers often prematurely close the door to beneficial opportunities.  I find that in the long run, the most effective style is not taking or matching, but giving: helping others with no strings attached.  Givers tend to build deeper and broader networks than takers and matchers, investing in meaningful relationships that provide motivation, social capital, and access to new ideas.

Abhijit: When leaders build a team, what should they look at while hiring? Most hiring tends to be focused on hiring people who have the right competencies. How do we hire people to build a culture of collaboration?

Adam Grant:  Many leaders focus on competence, but it’s equally important to hire people who will use their competence for the benefit of the team.  Based on more than three decades of evidence, a culture of collaboration comes from a norm of giving: sharing knowledge, teaching skills, offering feedback, providing mentoring, and sharing credit.  Interestingly, the best way to build a culture of givers is not to hire givers, but to screen out takers.  One bad apple can easily spoil the barrel; it’s less common for one good egg to make a dozen.  If you keep takers off the bus, you’ll find that givers act generously, as they don’t have to fear exploitation.  Most team members are matchers, and the beauty of matchers is that they tend to follow the norm.  When they witness and receive help, they tend to reciprocate, and the whole team shifts in a more helpful, collaborative direction.

Abhijit: How do you get your ideas? Tell me about your reading habits.

Adam Grant: I read at least one book per week, and a few dozen articles a day—usually at night after I’ve finished my work, as I find that consuming ideas requires less mental energy than producing them.  Oftentimes, I wake up the next morning with unanswered questions or new connections between the different perspectives.  I like to mix fiction and nonfiction; about half of the books I read are mystery novels, and the other half are books about social science and work.

Abhijit: How do you manage your time, given how accessible you are?

Adam Grant: I’ve become clearer about my priorities in the past year: family first, students second, colleagues third, everyone else fourth.  Each week, I block out significant windows of time for the first two groups, with no interruptions, and then reserve separate time to get my own work done, and my remaining for people who fall in the other categories.  Also, when I receive a request, I ask whether I’m the best person to help uniquely in this situation.  If I know someone who’s more qualified to contribute, I aim to make an introduction and get out of the way.----------

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Don’t miss Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?

A simple way to tell people that their job matters:http://youtu.be/imyAvTFRoaI